Blue Earth?baseball team defeats Waterville Indians, 7-2

August 4, 2013

The Blue Earth Pirates baseball team powered their way to the top of the league as playoffs continue.

They played Waterville on July 28 in Winnebago, winning by a score of 7-2 making them the 13/60 League Champions.

The Pirates' success in their game against Waterville means they go on to region playoffs.

Blue Earth found their footing early in the game against Waterville. The Pirates ended the top of the first inning within three Waterville batters and went on to score their first run in the bottom of the first inning. Trent Sonnicksen crossed the plate after Bob Olson hit a double.

Their opponents were out in three in both the second and third innings.

This gave the Pirates an opportunity to bump up the score again in the bottom of the third.

Cody Sukalski ended up crossing home plate for a Pirate run. This put the Pirates ahead 2-0.

Waterville didn't seem to get warmed up until the seventh inning.

Terry Schultz was the second in the batting order and took a base on balls. He was followed by Jason Giesler who hit a home run, bringing both runners across the plate to tie the score.

The Pirates responded by bringing in three runs of their own. Sukalski, Sonnicksen and TJ Schmidtke all crossed the plate in the seventh, putting the score at 5-2.

Blue Earth scored again in the eighth inning, winning the game.

Sukalski was 1 for 4 batting and took one base on balls, scored two runs and had one RBI.

Sonnicksen was 0 for 2 but gained first base twice on walks and scored two runs.

Olson was 3 for 4, hit two doubles and had two RBIs.

Lee Hodges was 2 for 4 and had one RBI.

Kane Malo was 2 for 4 hitting and scored one run.

Hodges pitched five innings for the Pirates. He had five strikeouts and one hit.

Wendt pitched two innings. He allowed two runs off of one hit, one base on balls and had one strikeout.

Sukalski also pitched two innings. He allowed two hits and had one strikeout.

The Pirates traveled to Waterville Aug. 3 to play Minnesota Lake. They played again on Aug. 4 depending on the results of the Saturday game.

The Region playoff games took place after the Register deadline and will be reported in the next issue.